OREANDA-NEWS. June 19, 2009.  Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation hopes that Rosatom hopes that in 2010 RosRAO will start acting as a unified national operator for nuclear waste treatment, says Deputy Director General for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation Yevgeny Yevstratov.

Rosatom has submitted to the Government a bill on radioactive waste treatment. “We hope that the law will be adopted this year,” says Yevstratov.

The bill stipulates creation of a unified national operator for radioactive waste treatment, final isolation of radioactive waste, consolidation of all assets in this field. In 2008 Rosatom was given 15 enterprises of Radon, which were consolidated into RosRAO, a company with seven territorial branches.

“We would like RosRAO to start working on a full scale in 2010,” says Yevstratov.

“As soon as the law is adopted, we will draft relevant regulations and the producers of radioactive waste will have to bring their radioactive waste into conformity with the requirements of the national operator and to transfer it to the latter for temporary storage and final isolation at a specific price. This measure is supposed to urge them to produce less radioactive waste. The less they produce, the less they will pay for its storage or disposal. In 2012 we will start revising our nuclear and radiation safety program in compliance with the national operator concept. We have to work out a specific tariff for radioactive waste and its activity so as to ensure its safe treatment in the future,” says Yevstratov.

Presently, Russia has 475,000,000 cubic meters of radioactive waste and 18,750 tons of spent nuclear fuel. “95% of the waste has been produced under the military nuclear project, particularly, by Mayak PA,” says Yevtratov.

He points out that RosRAO is not a monopolist in the field of radioactive waste treatment.

“Radioactive waste treatment is a state program. Our Government has specific commitments under international conventions. So, we must create a national system of radioactive waste treatment: a market of relevant services and a system of control over the work done in this field. The Government must take part in the financing of radioactive waste treatment activities.”

Yevstratov says that RosRAO will fix a tariff for radioactive waste treatment. A producer of radioactive waste will have to pay for it. The tariff will consist of a current component (for operation, reception and temporary storage) and a cumulative component (for construction of isolation facilities and control over them.